The New York Times is tracking the human toll of the conflict in this feature. The primary source is the online video that has allowed a widening war to be documented like no other, and posts try to put the video into context.
Edited by Liam Stack

Video posted online Tuesday showed a blast atop a residential building in the Damascus suburb of Darayya on the same day as an important Muslim holiday, Id al-Adha. The explosion happened very close to a cameraman filming a street scene, who attributed it to warplanes that he said had been bombing the town since Monday. "Smoke covers the sky in the town," he said. He then ran into a friend filming the same scene. They exchanged cordial greetings, while filming each other the whole time.

This video in context

What We Know

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a group based in Britain,
reported government bombing of the Damascus suburbs in recent days. Fighting continued across Syria on Tuesday, the Id al-Adha holiday. Hundreds of people fled Moadamiyah, a town near Darayya, during a rare ceasefire on Sunday.

What We Don't Know

We do not know how many people may have been killed or injured in Darayya on Tuesday. The cameraman said this explosion was caused by an airstrike, but we do not know if his assessment is correct. We do not know the identity of either the cameraman or the friend he met at the end of this clip.

Other Videos

A video from Darayya shows a towering column of smoke after an airstrike on Tuesday morning, followed by the staccato of gunfire. Another clip shows an airstrike in the distance across a landscape of destroyed buildings. In another
video, an injured child said he was bombed by a "MiG jet."

Tweets related to this video

its the first Day of Eid, but the regime & opposition continue to shell each other. it's ordinary civilians that are paying the price #Syria